Category: Member Posts

Don Andrews demo Meeting recap – At our last member meeting on February 9, Don Andrews, AWS, flew in to teach our annual workshop, jury our show, and present a demo for our members meeting. There were 61 members in attendance!

Don is a nationally known artist, author and workshop instructor. He is known for his glowing landscapes and figures. His website is donandrewsstudio.com; please go check it out. His granular washes, vibrant colors mixed on paper, and positioning of lights and darks truly makes his paintings stand out. Right off the bat, he started the demo with a different set up: Don is a lefty; he paints standing up, and he paints at a roughly 35 degree (my rough estimate) slant. It was a truly pleasurable demo from my perfect viewpoint directly behind him, on the floor…some of us in the front row had to watch out for splashes of juicy paint now and then.

Our demo artist is a consummate pro; he came prepared with a pre-drawn landscape. He uses a Robert E. Wood palette, because he studied under Bob as his protege…he learned to mix colors, using mostly primaries; one set of warm (lemon yellow, cerulean blue, and scarlet lake) and one set of cool (ultramarine blue, burnt Sienna [warm yellow in this case] and Permanent Magenta [a true red]). With the addition of his namesake Cheap Joes American Journey Turquoise, and opera, his paintings glow with color and life.

Starting with his background wet into wet, using a 2” flat, he created his light value wash. Paint was mixed with water at around a 50-50. He taught us that most students usually have too much water in their brush, and reminded us that the paint will always dry lighter. Don’s brushes of choice are American Journey synthetic sable rounds, 10 and 12, and he paints a lot of his details with his 1” flat Robert Simmons white synthetic sable. This particular Simmons brush is only about 3/4” tall vs. most 1” flats, which are also 1” tall…too tall to hold a strong pigment for granulations.

After he let this initial wash dry, before our very eyes, he began adding more and more dabs of color in stronger values, until this beautiful painting emerged.

He explained how figures can add vibrance and movement to a composition. Providing us with specific directions on how to draw accurate figures will hopefully, lead to many of us including new figures in our paintings! Heads are rounded off rectangles, not “balls” on a stick. Human proportions are all similar: 10% head, 50% torso, and 40% legs will create a believable person.

Another cool thing Don does is keep a waterproof mat on hand so he can constantly check his composition – when a painting is properly matted, that wide band of white really helps to see where one needs to add or blend, soften or texturize, highlight or glaze, etc. Placing the mat on the just completed painting elicited genuine oohs and aahs…all in all, a very satisfying demo!

Thank you again to Don Andrews for so generously and patiently sharing his wisdom with us. Please go to: donandrewsstudio.com for his brand-new video series, Designing Nature, where he gives instant, (hilarious) and lifetime access to all of his teachings and demos in 35 tutorials. All for $99!!! I’m getting one as soon as it launches. Stay tuned for an announcement any day now.

Ten CFWS members showed up on Wednesday at Nehrling Gardens in Gotha.It was a great day to paint in such a beautiful and historic garden! It was cool and quiet and there were landscapes, flowers, a pollinator garden and even an alligator sculpture to paint.Jane finished her beautiful painting of the Nehrling house! Thank you Jane!It was a great day to paint in such a beautiful and historic garden! There were landscapes of bamboo.

There was a pollinator garden with lots of lovely flowers.Surprise! Someone carved an alligator into a tree trunk.The front room.

We started the first meeting of 2020 with a dynamic presentation by our super talented member, Dana Daydodge. There was a large group of members ready to learn Dana’s secrets of Underpainting: Reworking old Paintings into new creations!

Dana is a classically trained artist, who has now made her mark in the Central Florida area. While her profession was as an operating room nurse, Dana also had the opportunity to attend the prestigious American Academy of Art in Chicago. Looking for “anywhere warmer than Chicago” to retire, lucky for us, she chose to retire in our backyard!

Dana said she tries to draw or paint every day. Her obvious talent in taking an old painting she didn’t like, and turning it into an award-winning painting works!

She suggested taking an old painting and finding shapes you like. Birds can be easily created from many shapes. Dana shared many examples of her reworked pieces, such as a portrait of a people, which became a colorful, whimsical painting of giraffes….a rhino was originally a painting of a cactus!

While still utilizing her watercolor paints, she added a big squiggle of white gouache onto her palette. But, she likes bold color (especially for backgrounds, bold color can cover up unwanted shapes)!

In addition to the tubes of Holbein watercolor and gouache, she had water soluble pencils (Faber Castell), crayons (Caran D’ache), ArtGraf graphite blocks, and Staedler watercolor Brush Pens to create these magical creations.

Dana also reiterated the importance of best quality paper. She uses 140lb. Cotton rag because she does numerous lifting and overpainting multiple times.

Dana, not only a talented artist but also one of our strongest supporters, not only generously gave of her time for our demo, but also donated one of her paintings to be raffled off! Needless to say, we quickly sold more raffle tickets.! Thank you, Dana, for donating your time, talent and passion to our membership. – Pam

Use gouache to overpaint areas with different colors.Start with birds because they are easy to do.A pink Faber-Castell pencil is used to form a beak.

You can overpaint only over a watercolor or acrylic painting. Oil will bleed through or crack. Supplies she had: Gouache, Holbein watercolors, Staedtler watercolour brush pens, ArtGraf water soluble tailor chalk, Caran d’Ache Neocolor II artist crayons, and more.

All of these supplies can be found at our generous sponsors…. ArtSystems, Cheap Joe’s and Blick art materials.

Charlotte Cipes, our co-president, opened the meeting!Back by popular demand, David calls out the ticket numbers and generally has fun!We were treated to a special appearance by none other than Santa! Ho! Ho! Ho!Our wonderful VP, Sandi, did an outstanding job organizing the party and collecting so many wonderful donations! Thank you Sandi for all your hard work!

What a great time was had at our annual members holiday meeting and in-house art show. Sandi got our members lots of great drawing prizes and there was so much food from our member chefs! Thank you to all our sponsors and volunteers!

Lots of great food!Thank you Tom Jones for your fabulous donations for the drawing!! One lucky member won an original painting by Tom!!

Thouraya is thrilled to win a Strathmore Travel pad and Tom Jones winter greeting card!Mini paintings were exchanged by many talented members.

Percy is a long time supporter of the society and we were thrilled that he made it to our party! ArtSystems gave everyone a goodie bag with artistic treats! Thank you for the wonderful gifts Percy!

Santa gives George 4 passes to the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art!Congratulations to Starr on winning the 5 passes to our own Orlando Museum of Art! Thank you OMA!Wowee Zowee! Pat gets a large Aquaboard, from Ampersand, for her next masterpiece!! Thanks to Ampersand!

Annual Juried Show submissions are being accepted online now through November 15th. Show is open to all CFWS current membership. Haven’t renewed membership but want to submit?, you can join CFWS online and then submit your work. Annual Show Submission form.

Our first demo of the season was kicked off with Ronald Malone’s “Maximizing Color in Watercolor”. Ron demonstrated the best way to photograph your portrait subjects (from the side for more interesting shadow shapes on the face), and the importance of creating a personal color palette for understanding how to mix dramatic color families (cools and warms). Ron used the example of painting his black and white dog in warms (yellow for hot and cooling in oranges to reds) and the coolest areas in shadow (deep blue/purple to light blues and turquoise). The lucky attendees received a mini handout book of his demo. He left us a demo CD for our library for anyone who would like to see his demo examples and lessons! He also donated a beautiful portrait print as a fund raiser/ raffle for our society in the future. It was a great demo! Ron Malone is also the Co-Owner of the MARC (Gallery Studio) and gives 1 and 2 day workshops there in Lakeland, Florida (www.the-marc.com).

Sandi Hanlon-Breuer, our new vice-president, made the welcome remarks and introduced Ron Malone. Five new guests were in attendance. Leslie Macauley and Donna Coulantes were thanked for their years of service through planning our CFWS shows.

MarcelaMoglia announced some upcoming plein air events (October 19 – Altamonte Chapel campus and November 16 – Mead Botanical Gardens in Winter Park) and the upcoming “Images of Pompeii”, our exciting special summer exhibit at the Orlando Science Center! We will be using the photographs of our members who have been to Pompeii as inspiration for our masterpieces. No photos from books or other online sources may be used (unless special permission is given by the photographer and given credit at the exhibition.). In addition, Marcela reminded us that our annual juried members show will be from February 6 – March 29, 2020 at the SOBO gallery in Winter Garden. The last day for entering your artwork in the show is November 15, 2019! Don Andrews will be our juror.

Terri Chin announced that the Altamonte Chapel has asked our society to partner with them once again on the October 19“Arts and Crafts Day/Plein Air” event. CFWS members can reserve a spot for their table and handcrafted arts for only $10. You keep all the profits! We also still need teacher volunteers to set up free watercolor lessons to our community. Please contact SerinaRamos-Colon to reserve your table and Terri Chin for teaching and Marcela Moglia for plein air.

Susan Grogan, reminded us that on November 16, Niko Floyd will be doing another one-day workshop titled “Perspectives in Drawing”. Niko is back by popular demand and will also do our general meeting demonstration on November 3. Reserve your space for his popular workshop now!

Don Andrews will be our juror and will also offer a 3-day workshop titled “Landscapes, Composition and Color” on February 10-12. Early Bird members registration is $300 before October 31 – so reserve now!

Diana Eagles reminded our group that members with the last name D-H, will bring the goodies for our group next month.

It was an amazing demo and lots of fun! Hope to see everyone there on November 3rd.

Plein air events are informal gatherings of artists who enjoy painting outdoors in a variety of locations. Occasionally, there may be a painting demonstration if an artist volunteers to do so. There is no instructional teaching provided. Locations vary, some may be rough where there is only mowed grass or mulched paths. Selected locations provide restroom facilities and parking. Artists should consider bringing a lunch and beverage.

Mulched rough paths only, benches along the paths. Please use the Pedestrian Entrance. Public parking is only available across the street at the Church parking lot, or at the extension parking lot. There is no public parking available at the gardens.